DSP Readies For Emerging Video Applications May 2007 Issue Published Date: March 29, 2007
Promising to eliminate the compromises associated with existing devices for prosumer video and IP video surveillance applications, the latest member of the Storm-1 family of data-parallel digital signal processors (DSPs) is designed for power and price sensitive applications that require software programmability. The Storm-1 SP8LP provides a programmable performance of 16,000 MMACs while consuming less than 0.1 mW per MMAC. It is singularly capable of real-time, multi-codec/multi-stream encoding, such as H.264 scalable video coding, while maintaining processing headroom to run rules-based video analyses, image-sensor processing, and audio encoding. The device features a MIPS32 4KEc CPU core for system tasks, DSP coprocessor subsystem that contains a second MIPS32 4KEc CPU core, and a data-parallel unit with eight lanes that have five 32-bit ALUs, each containing a MAC unit. Input and output data for each lane is managed by the compiler and on-chip logic. Peripheral I/O includes Ethernet, PCI, I2C, I2S, UARTs, GPIO, an image sensor interface, and BT.656/BT.1120 video ports. Currently sampling with production expected in the third quarter, the chip is housed in a 480-pin, 23 mm x 23 mm PBGA. STREAM PROCESSORS INC., Sunnyvale, CA. (408) 616-3338.
